Introduction

Last week AMD launched their Radeon HD 4550 Series which is based on the new RV710 GPU. The GPU is a derivative of the RV770 and includes all of its features, with a reduced shader and ROP count.
The cards are targeted at the entry level segment with focus on HD media playback. AMD has designed two reference boards. The one we review today features a passive cooler which makes it a great choice for a media PC because silence is key there. Also included is a native HDMI and DisplayPort output which underlines the HTPC positioning of this card. In case you are looking for a low profile card, AMD has also released a card that comes with a small, quiet fan that will fit into all the tiny low profile cases out there.

Packaging & Contents

We received just the card from AMD, without package or any accessories. Retail cards will of course include the appropriate accessories like manual, driver CD and adapter cables.

The Card

The Radeon HD 4550 is dominated by the big black passive heatsink, it also uses a single slot which is often crucial in media PC designs.


The card has one DVI port, one HDMI port and one DisplayPort. This is certainly an interesting output configuration and one of the first reference design cards that uses a native DisplayPort connector. In case you still use an analog display you can of course use a DVI adapter to connect your monitor. The HDMI output includes HDCP and 7.1 audio which is a new feature of the HD 4000 Series. The previous HD 3000 Series had only 5.1 audio support over HDMI. The HDMI Audio device is integrated in the GPU, which means that you won't have to feed an external audio signal to the card like on NVIDIA.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

The heatsink is a really simple piece of metal covered by fins to increase the surface area. Despite its basic design the heatsink does a great job at keeping the card cool.


All RV710 cards support CrossFire without a dongle. Data exchange between the two cards happens via the PCI-Express bus.


An external power connector is not needed. The card will draw all its power from the PCI-Express bus.


The GDDR3 memory chips are made by Samsung and carry the model number K4W1G1646D-EC12. With a latency of 1.2 ns they should be good for at least 833 MHz.


This is AMD's new RV710 graphics processor. It is made in a 55 nm process at TSMC using 242 million transistors. The die size is 73 mm² which makes it ones of the smallest GPUs on the market today.